Michigan State crashes out of College Cup in 5-1 loss to Akron

By Jorge Mercardo Special to The Detroit News Published 10:30 PM EST Dec 7, 2018 Santa Barbara, Calif — Michigan State men’s soccer first appearance the College Cup in 50 years ended in a 5-1 semifinal loss to Akron on Friday. Akron had goals from David Egbo, Carlo Ritaccio, Skye Harter, Marcel Zajac and Braden Petno. Patrick Nielsen had MSU’s lone goal in the 79th minute. The Spartans (14-5-4) started aggressively, pressuring the Zips on defense. Akron is known for its technical game style, and instead of sitting back in its half, Michigan state opted to push defenders onto the Zips’ side of the field in order to disrupt them. The one downside to constant pressure and counter attack, however, were the constant gaps left in Michigan State’s side of the pitch. In the 15th minute, the Zips took advantage of this scoring the first goal. Zips’ midfielder Harter took the ball up the left side of the pitch and sent in a floating cross just past the outstretched arms of Spartan goalkeeper Jimmy Hague to a wide open to midfielder Morgan Hackworth. Hackworth headed the ball off the top right post, but Zips’ star forward Egbo was there to clean it up, blasting the ball into the upper right corner and into the back of the net for his 13th goal of the season in the 16th minute. The Spartans were able to regroup quickly and had their best opportunity of the game just five minutes later as Spartans… [Read full story]